Plateau Assembly loses member

The Plateau House of Assembly has confirmed the death of one of its members, Godfrey Dashe, representing Qua’pan South constituency.
The Speaker of the Assembly,Mr Peter Azi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that Dashe died in the early hours of Tuesday in Jos.
Dashe, who represented his constituency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), died after a brief illness
”This is a monumental loss not only to his family, constituency, this Assembly, but the entire state.
”I was informed of his ill-health, I went to see him at the hospital last night and he was looking better.
”To my greatest surprise, I got a call in the early hours of today that he gave up the ghost.
”We will really miss his elderly counseling in the House,” the speaker said.

Lion kills guide in Zimbabwe park where Cecil lived

Cecil. PHOTO: Abc.net.au

A lion mauled to death a guide leading tourists on a walking safari in the Zimbabwean national park where Cecil the lion lived before he was shot, police said Tuesday.

The guide was attacked on Monday after the group left their vehicle to inspect a pride of lions with cubs under a tree in the Hwange National Park, the country’s largest natural reserve.

“Some cubs came near the tourists and one adult lion identified as Nxaha charged at them,” police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told AFP.

“The adult lion retreated for a while and then came charging at the guide. It knocked him down and mauled him on the neck and shoulder.”

The guide, Quinn Terence Swales, 40, was airlifted from the scene but pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in the resort town of Victoria Falls.

Owners of the safari camp confirmed the incident in a statement.

“It is with deep regret and great sadness that we are able to confirm the death of Quinn Swales, a Camp Hwange professional guide, who was fatally mauled by a male lion whilst out on a walking safari,” Camp Hwange said.

“We can confirm that Quinn did everything he could to successfully protect his guests and ensure their safety, and that no guests were injured.”

Quinn was leading six tourists when he was killed.

Charamba urged visitors to game parks to “remain wary even when the animals appear friendly because with an animal you can never predict its next move.”

The killing of Cecil the lion in July provoked worldwide outrage when it emerged he was a favourite attraction among visitors to Hwange and was wearing a tracking collar as part of an Oxford University research project.

Cecil was reportedly lured with bait from the safety of the park before being killed by Walter Palmer, an American dentist armed with a bow and arrow who paid $55,000 (50,000 euros) to shoot a lion.

Palmer’s guide on the expedition, Zimbabwean Theo Bronkhorst, appeared in court last month and was granted $1,000 bail pending his trial on September 28 on charges of organising an illegal hunt.

Switzerland donates $8m to support Boko Haram victims in Nigeria, others

Boko HaramTHE government of Switzerland has donated the sum of $8 million (N1.6 billion) to Nigeria and neighbouring countries in the Lake Chad in support of all Boko Haram victims in the North-East sub-region of the country.

The donation was made yesterday when the Charge’d’ Affaires of Swiss Embassy, Daniel Cavegn, paid an official visit to Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State at the Musa Usman Secretariat Complex, Maiduguri.

He said the visit of the Swiss Embassy to the state was to show solidarity with the people and government of Borno State as they are in a difficult situation caused by Boko Haram conflict.

Cavegn, who stated that the $8 million financial donation to Nigeria was specifically in support of the people affected by Boko Haram conflict in the North-East, including the countries around Lake Chad, said: “We are even looking towards increasing this funding, and to also extend the support and also for others to come here with strong presence of international donors on ground.

“We from outside, we have done our best to increase the humanitarian aid on one side. We support the World Food Programme (WFP), UNCFR and other international organisations.”

Speaking on restoration of peace, he said: “We have established an extensive network; we have also continued our exchange with your governor this time. We try our best to follow the situation on ground. I was told that the name of this state is home of peace. You will find the way back to normal life as far as I understand that the prospect for people here to live and earn an income to restart the economy and development is very important.”

Responding, Governor Shettima, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Jidda Shuwa, said in the last six years, the state was invaded by Boko Haram insurgents where 20 local councils were captured with the displacement of two million people, mainly women and children.

He said: “Thousands of other people were also killed and billions of naira worth of property in the private and public sectors also destroyed during the six-year insurgency in Borno State.

“Considering the situation in which we found ourselves and the meagre resources at our disposal, there is the need for foreign partners and international organisations to come to the aid of the state, especially in the reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement of the destroyed communities.

He, therefore, solicited the intervention of the Swiss government in the reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement of destroyed communities.

Photos: SA pastor prays snake spirit into his members, then 'sends' them to Nigeria

Former NSA Dasuki denies arms charges

Nigeria's ex National Security Adviser Dasuki Sambo has denied charges of illegally possessing weapons and committing acts posing potential harm to national security. The Department of state security DSS yesterday August 24th charged the former NSA to court over allegations of wrongful possession of firearms without license.

A source close to the former NSA who spoke with BBC Hausa this morning, said Dasuki insists the weapons found in his house during a recent search were for the use of soldiers guarding his house.

Photo: Baby born at 27 weeks was so tiny her arm slipped through her dad's wedding ring

 The baby defied the odds to survive. What a miracle!

N1tn petition: Senate rumbles, splits over Lamorde probe

A fresh crisis looms in the Senate.

Members on Monday appeared divided over the planned probe of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde, over alleged diversion of stolen funds recovered from looters.

While the Senate leadership said the probe would proceed as scheduled on Wednesday (tomorrow), members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the upper federal legislative chamber kicked against the probe.

The EFCC boss, according to a petition before the Senate, has been accused of diverting N1tn said to have been recovered from a former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha; and a former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun.

The petitioner, Dr. George Uboh, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Panic Alert Security Systems, had petitioned the Senate through the senator representing his Delta North constituency, Peter Nwaoboshi, alleging that Lamorde, in connivance with other EFCC officials, short-changed the Federal Government in the remittance of funds and properties recovered from Alamieyeseigha and Balogun.

The probe of the EFCC boss by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions has been scheduled to begin on Wednesday (tomorrow).

After an earlier arguments over the propriety of the investigation by the Senate, the PDP senators later in a statement signed by the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio; his deputy, Emmanuel Bwacha; Minority Whip, Philip Aduda; and his deputy, Biodun Olujimi, rejected the planned probe.

The PDP senators’ statement, issued late on Monday, partly read, “It has come to the notice of the PDP leadership in the Senate that the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions would begin a public hearing on Wednesday, August 26, 2015 and the committee has invited the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to appear before it.

“The PDP leadership in the Senate is not against any committee of the Senate performing its oversight duties and or functions but we feel that this is not the appropriate time to embark on the most important assignment, particularly since the same action was mooted and had failed at previous plenary session.

“We therefore urge the committee to suspend its public hearing on this particular matter until further notice.

“The PDP senate leadership reassures the Nigerian public of its support for the war against corruption by the Federal Government of Nigeria but hastens to add that such fight against corruption should be total and not selective.

“Nigerians need peace at this period of economic challenges precipitated by the falling of oil prices and actions that will overheat the polity and generate unnecessary friction between the executive and the legislature should be avoided.”

Our correspondent learnt that there had been a heated argument among senators earlier on Monday with the senior lawmakers divided on the scheduled investigation of Uboh’s petition against Lamorde.

Some members of the committee to probe the EFCC boss were said to have disagreed sharply over the investigation, though the anti-graft commission released a statement to say that the commission under Lamorde feared no probe.

The commission, in a statement by its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, described Uboh’s petition as mischievous and intended to smear Lamorde.

The statement read in part, “The EFCC as an agency that is founded on transparency is not afraid of any ‘probe’ or request for information regarding its activities by individuals, groups or organs of government; so far as such requests followed due process of law.

“Even if the EFCC had not returned a kobo of recovered assets in its 12 years existence in addition to the yearly appropriated funds from the Federation Account, it will be nowhere near a trillion naira.

“It (the petition) was sent, not to the Senate but to a member, Senate Peter Nwaoboshi, a first-term senator from Delta North.

“Under the Senate rules, petitions meant for consideration by the red chamber are sent to the Senate, not to a member of the Senate.

“Also, petitions meant for the Senate are tabled at the plenary, before they are referred to the relevant committees for further consideration. In this instance, the Senate has been on recess and there is no evidence that the so-called petition was considered at plenary and referred to any committee.”

According to the commission, the   EFCC under Lamorde did not need the prompting of anyone when it commissioned KPMG, an audit firm, to carry out comprehensive audit of exhibits and forfeited assets of the Commission from 2003 to date.

It said that the report of the audit would be made public once it is ready.

The statement added, “Were the Commission to be jittery about its records, it would not have embarked on such audit.

“The EFCC however warns that those who peddle false information with the intent to mislead should be reminded that there is a subsisting law on false information and the consequence for violation is grave.”

Attempts to speak with Akpabio, as of the time of filing this report, were futile as calls made to his mobile phones did not connect while the text message sent to him was also not acknowledged.

A member of the committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the issue, explained to one of our correspondents that a motion was sponsored on financial crimes earlier in the month, seeking, among others, the invitation of Lamorde to appear before the Senate.

The senator said that one of the prayers in the motion as it specifically affected Lamorde’s invitation was rejected by the majority of the senators during plenary and that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, had no option but to rule it out.

He said, “We were however surprised that the probe was channelled through the back door in form of a petition. We had discussed it in our meeting and some of us believe that we should allow the petitioner to seek redress in a court of law.

“If the chairman (of the ethics committee) still decides to go ahead with the invitation of the EFCC chairman, we will have no choice but to write our own minority report at the end of the exercise because we believe it is an issue that could be settled in court.”

But the Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, told one of our correspondents on the telephone on Monday that there was no disagreement among the committee members and that the probe would go on as scheduled.

He said, “There is no confusion anywhere, we are inviting the EFCC chairman and the man that wrote a petition against him. This is different from the decision taken on the floor of the Senate over a motion.

“Our committee is intact and there is no dissenting voice, we will go ahead with the probe on Wednesday by the grace of God. We have the mandate of Nigerians to discharge our lawful functions as lawmakers; hence we will treat the petition on its merit.”

Also, when contacted, the Senate spokesperson, Dino Melaye, said he was not aware of the disagreement among members of the committee over Lamorde and that the probe had nothing to do with the rejection of an earlier prayer in a motion seeking his invitation by the Senate.

Melaye said, “The rule of the Senate permits its Committee on Ethics and Public Petitions to invite anybody indicted in a petition. It has nothing to do with any resolution of the entire house.

“I am aware that the committee will proceed with the invitation of the EFCC boss as scheduled on Wednesday. A formal letter had been sent to him in that regard.”

The offences alleged against Larmode were said to have been committed when he was the Director of Operations of the EFCC between 2003 and 2007, as well as an acting Chairman of the commission between June 2007 and May 2008.

Source the punch
25th August

Ban Ki-Moon demands unconditional release of Chibok girls

The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, on Monday called for the unconditional release of the over 200 girls abducted in their school in Chibok, Borno State last year and other abductees of the Boko Haram sect.

Ban Ki-Moon made the appeal while addressing State House correspondents shortly after having a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, as part of the activities lined up for his two-day visit to the country.

His call came the week the girls will be spending their 500th day in captivity.

He commended Buhari who he said had embarked on an agenda for change in which he was prioritising security and anti-corruption war.

He promised UN support for the President’s agenda, saying “When you change Nigeria, you have also changed Africa.”

Buhari on his part said they discussed the difficult time Nigeria had found itself during the meeting.

He said the step was taken so that the UN could assist the country.

He thanked Ban Ki-Moon for extending invitation to him to attend the UN General Assembly holding in New York on September 27 and 28.

The UN scribe will return to the Presidential Villa by 7pm for a dinner organised in his honour.

Egba Chief Shot Dead After Celebrating 75th Birthday, Assailants Leave Note Behind

An Egba Chief, the Oluwo of Ikanna, Chief Moses Oyebade was Wednesday night shot dead by suspected assassins who gained access into his house around 12:00am and shot him several times till he died. The assailants left a note in English and Yoruba which read: ‘Useless man. Oni dokudo (promiscuous).’ The chief however only celebrated his 75^th birthday in Lagos two weeks ago before the incident.

The Ogun State Police command has however vowed to bring the perpetrators of the act to book. 

Fashola spent N139m on two boreholes – LASG

The immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, spent N139m on the drilling of two boreholes at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

The project was completed by Deux Projects Limited according to a report published by the state government

The report, which was part of the awarded contracts by the Lagos State Tenders Board in 2013, was seen on the website of the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency.

In the same year, N640m was spent by the Fashola administration for the reconstruction of a car park and other associated works at the Lagos House, Marina. The report stated that the N640m contract was given to Julius Berger Plc as part of phase two of the reconstruction of Lagos House where Fashola lived during his eight years in government.

In the same year, N300m was spent on the relocation of cables belonging to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. The contract was awarded to Deux Projects Limited.

According to the report, the former governor also spent N175m to replace the railings of a pedestrian bridge on Carter Bridge from Ido to Idumota with concrete railings. The contract was awarded to A Abicon Engineering Limited.

According to the report, N220m was spent on the facility management of the Lagos State University College of Medicine. The contract was awarded to Deux Projects Limited.

The former governor, according to the report, spent N619m on surface repair on Ajara-Erekiti-Iragon-Ikoga Road in Badagry Local Government.

According to the report, Fashola spent N1.2bn on the construction of an unidentified multi-storey building in Onikan, Lagos.

The former governor was also said to have spent N1.6bn on the construction of a 48-bedroom hotel at Lagos State VIP Chalets, Badagry.

About N510m was spent on the remodelling and equipping of the official residence of the state’s Chief Judge at 4 Thompson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos, according to the report.

About N165m was spent on the construction of an 18-classroom block at Ajara Senior Grammar School, Ajara Badagry. The same amount was also spent on an 18-block classroom at Community Senior/Junior Secondary School, Bayeku, Ikorodu.

Fashola had recently come under fire for spending N78.3m of taxpayers’ money on his website,tundefashola.com.

Although the figures were published on the official website of the state government, the former governor said all the monies were duly approved by the Lagos State House of Assembly and the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency.

Fashola, in a six-page letter, stated that the website of the state government was authentic.

He, however, warned against attempt by some persons to tarnish his good image and misrepresent his budgetary spending to the members of the public.

All attempts to speak with Fashola’s spokesperson, Hakeem Bello, proved abortive as he did not pick calls neither did he respond to a text message sent to his telephone.

Ooni Widows Can Not Re-Marry, It’s Either They Remain Single Or Be Inherited By The New Ooni

 The wives of the late‎ Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the Olubuse II, by tradition cannot re-marry after the demise of their husband, according to a palace chief.

The chief, who preferred not to be named, said the order was prescribed by the Ife tradition since the Ooni is not considered dead but to have transited to a higher realm.

Maintaining that the Ooni still lives, he said it is forbidden for wives left behind by Oba Sijuwade to re-marry.

He said: “The rules is general and applies to all Ooni that has passed on and not peculiar to the wives of Oba Sijuwade, the immediate past Ooni. There may not be a clearly defined repercussion against the tradition but it is advisable that the order is obeyed at all times and for all generations. The best that can happen to the oloris left behind by any late Ooni is for them to remain single or be inherited by the reigning Ooni.”

He added that it does not matter whether the wives are young or old, “what matters is that the tradition must be sustained in the overall interest of the society.”

The Nation

Revealed: Diezani Allison Madueke Sat On $14Billion Nigeria-India Oil Deal

The former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison Madueke, failed to sign a long-term agreement with New Delhi, Nigeria’s Number One oil buyer, but rather used intermediaries in the annual $14 billion deal, the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ajjampur R. Ghanashyam, has revealed.

Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust on Saturday at the weekend, the High Commissioner stated that Nigeria is the only country who uses intermediaries in its oil deals with India, saying, “From other countries, when we buy oil, whatever we want to pay, we pay to the Ministry of Finance of that country.

In Nigeria, we pay to intermediaries. We would like to be dealing directly with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). It’s not a good thing. Why should we go through intermediaries? Secondly, we would also like to have long term agreement, which we have with many countries: Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and other countries from where we buy oil. Nigeria is the only country with whom we don’t have an agreement. .. When we write a letter to NNPC, we don’t get a response.”

The NNPC 2014 Annual Statistical Bulletin indicated that India bought 136,419,844 barrels of crude oil, at a time when the United States’ own purchases from Nigeria was 24,047,758. China’s oil purchases from Nigeria also went as low as 11,412,275, despite the fact that it is one of Nigeria’s major trading partners. Next to India in oil purchases from Nigeria is the Netherlands, which imported 101,953,572 barrels of crude oil in 2014. Spain is next with 79,647,587 barrels, then South Africa comes fifth with the purchase of 51,148,821 barrels of crude oil from Nigeria.

The Indian High Commissioner added that apart from the lack of long-term agreement between the two countries on crude oil purchases, in 2006, an Indian company, Oil & Natural Gas Commission Videsh Limited (OVL) and Mittal Energy International, which is a joint venture between OVL, an Indian government company, and Mittal Energy a private firm, applied for oil concession. The Signature bonus sum of $25 million was paid, but neither was the oil concession granted nor the money paid returned to the Indian companies.

He lamented the situation thus, “How many years is it? Nine years. Even to get the concession is not possible, and the money is not refunded to us. For nine years your country has been sitting on this, and they make us go round and round and round. We buy $15 billion worth of crude oil per year and we have the potential of importing $50 billion worth of crude oil from Nigeria.

We can buy more because our requirement is going up. But if you continue to make us to pay through agents, and continue to ask us to buy from the swap market, it means you don’t trust us, and if you don’t trust us, we have to look for those who trust us more. We are making concessions to Nigeria by buying your crude oil because you’re our old friends and we’ve been friends for a long time, and your crude oil is better quality. But you must take our interest into account.”

Checks by our reporter at the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Abuja at the weekend revealed that the letter for the signature bonus was prepared by the department, but the former minister failed to sign it until the end of the tenure of the Jonathan administration.

Recently, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the United Arab Emirate (UAE) and signed a deal to deepen Indian trade with the Gulf State, and it is feared that the agreement could mean more oil export from UAE to India, which could affect Nigeria’s share of the oil trade.

Though Mr. Ghanashyam said India’s trade with UAE may not threaten India’s oil import from Nigeria, he revealed that there are other overtures from oil producing states.

According to him, “Today, oil is the buyers’ market, not the sellers’ market. You can’t sit on your high horse and dictate to the buyer. From Iran we used to buy 11 million metric tonnes. They want us to raise it to 22 million metric tonnes because the sanction is being lifted.

They want to come back in full force. The last time our prime minister went to Iran, they said they wanted to invest between $8 billion and $10 billion in India. Saudi Arabia has offered to use their own oil fleet to supply crude oil to India. That means we get transportation at Saudi’s cost, that is a difference of 50 cents per barrel.

Countries are trying to woo India because we are the third largest consumer of oil in the world, after the United States and China, .. and we need more. Every year we need between $6 billion and $8 billion additional worth of crude oil. We will go everywhere to buy crude oil.”

Already, Nigeria has lost oil deals with both the United States and China in the last few years. China, which used to import crude oil from Nigeria has shifted its loyalty to Angola, Daily Trust on Sunday gathered. Though no official of the Chinese Embassy could be reached for an explanation to the decline of the Asian country’s oil deal with Nigeria, Mr Charles Onunaiju, who is the Director of the Center from China Studies in Abuja attributed it to the instability in Nigeria’s oil sector.

According to Mr Onunaiju, “China imports more from Angola because of the instability in the oil industry. Also, they are reaching out to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela. There’s also a huge deal with Russia which is being struck for the supply of some $400 billion worth of crude oil over the next 30 years.”

Meanwhile, the Indian High Commissioner told our reporter that the attempt by two Nigerians to cross the Indian border with Pakistan to join ISIS came as a surprise to the mission in Nigeria.
According to him, “The students came from Kano and went to Bangalore to study. We’ve been liberal about granting students visas to Nigerians. With what has happened they have broken the visa rule, so when students apply to us for visa we have to do more checks. It’s quite unfortunate.